Science fiction translator Ken Liu on Invisible Planets compilation

By Jarrod Watt

Hao Jinfang and Xia Jia both appear in the first English-language compilation of Chinese science, Invisible Planets. Ken Liu’s short story The Paper Menagerie was the first work of fiction to win the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Worlds in one year.

Invisible Planets could well be the Chinese science fiction equivalent of Dangerous Visions, an anthology of science fiction released in 1967 which changed the way many readers thought about the genre.

“For readers, my fellow anglophonic readers, I hope they like the book. I don’t think the book is terribly important to the Chinese community, because Chinese writers have been writing Chinese science fiction for decades, and there’s a very vibrant science fiction scene in China, consisting of younger authors like Chen Quifan, Hao Jinfang, Xia Jia and so on…

“For English readers I think it is kind of interesting, because up until this moment Chinese science fiction has played a very low role for the average English reader, you know, most of us read authors from the UK, the US, Australia, from Canada, we might read some translations, but mostly they will be from Europe or Japan. There has not been a large presence in translation from Chinese quarters. Read more